"In my role as Dean of Fairfield’s Egan School, I’ve had the privilege to partner with Bridgeport Hospital for many years in the education of nursing students. I am honored to join the Board of Trustees and excited to collaboratively expand our work in serving the Bridgeport community," said Meredith Wallace Kazer, PhD, APRN, FAAN.

An award-winning author, Dean Kazer oversees the nationally ranked Egan School, with its esteemed faculty of clinical experts in patient care, state-of-the-art facility, and array of undergraduate graduate programs preparing future healthcare leaders. Her career-spanning focus on improving the quality of life of older adults has resulted in numerous patient-centered interventions. Dean Kazer's work has been disseminated in a dozen books, 85 peer-reviewed journal publications, 27 book chapters, and more than 100 research and invited presentations.

Dean Kazer completed her bachelor of science degree in nursing at Boston University, earned her master of science in nursing in medical-surgical nursing with a specialty in geriatrics from Yale University, and received her PhD in nursing research and theory development at New York University (NYU). She was the managing editor of the Journal of Applied Nursing Research and the research brief editor for the journal and is currently Editor-in Chief of the Building Healthy Academic Communities Journal. Her scholarly work, Prostate Cancer: Nursing Assessment Management and Care, won an American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award. She was the associate editor of The Geriatric Nursing Research Digest, and the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Nursing Research. She also published and edited a case studies book for advanced practice, which won American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards. She is the past recipient of the Springer Publishing Company Award for Applied Nursing Research and the Virginia Henderson Award for Outstanding Contributions to Nursing Research.

In 2014, Dean Kazer was named among the 15 top adult gerontology professors. In 2015, she was named the 10th most influential dean of nursing in the United States. In 2016 she was a recipient of the Yale School of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award and named inaugural editor of the new Building Healthy Academic Communities Journal. In 2018 she received the Connecticut League for Nursing President’s Award for her statewide nursing leadership. In 2019 she was appointed to the VA OAA National Academic Affiliations Council. She is an adult and gerontological primary care nurse practitioner and currently maintains a practice with a focus on chronic illness in older adults.

For more information about Fairfield University's Egan School, visit www.fairfield.edu/egan.